Nvidia treat PC gamers to free games (when they buy an expensive new graphics card)

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Graphics chip makers Nvidia have a treat for PC gamers this winter – they’ve announced that they’ll be bundling some of this year’s most sought-after games with their latest hardware.

From October 28th, people who buy the GeForce GTX 660 or GTX 760 will also get a free copy of both Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and Splinter Cell Blacklist. If instead you go for the GTX 770, GTX 780 or GTX TITAN, they’ll also throw in Batman: Arkham Origins.

Which is jolly nice of them.

The reason they’re doing it is because apparently it’s Nvidia technology that enables games to be played “the way they’re meant to be played”. Here’s some examples they cite:

“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” will feature God Rays, which allow game makers to paint beams of light that illuminate a scene from above; horizon-based ambient occlusion + (HBAO+) for more detailed and realistic shadows around objects that obstruct rays of light; percentage-closer soft shadows (PCSS) for more lifelike contact hardening shadows; and temporal anti-aliasing (TXAA) for smoother edges.

“Batman: Arkham Origins” is built with support for GPU PhysX for realistic turbulence, particle and cloth effects, NVIDIA Bokeh & Depth of Field technologies for cool camera effects, HBAO+, PCSS, and TXAA.

“Call of Duty: Ghosts” will feature GPU PhysX for more realistic turbulence and particle effects, TXAA, and HBAO+.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I could live in a world without percentage-closer soft shadows, whatever they are. But all sarcasm aside – it’s rather nice to see the often overlooked PC gamer get some free games after splashing out about a grand building a games machine, rather than just spending £200 on an Xbox.